“People all over the nation are starved for honesty and common sense.” –Dr. Benjamin Carson

We once taught our children to admire Washington and Lincoln because they were honest men, men of integrity. A few years ago, people were surprised to learn that presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy cheated on their wives.

Anyone who went to Sunday school learned about King David cheating on his wife, then committing murder in the attempt to cover it up. Cheating and lying and being dishonest have been around since Adam and Eve took the first bite. We used to feel guilty about it. Fewer and fewer people appear capable of feeling guilt over wrongdoing.

As a society, we have so seared the collective conscience; we’ve turned the corner from being numb to guilt to actually celebrating and promoting the cheating heart. Asked why he sexually exploited an intern in the White House, Bill Clinton famously replied: “Because I could.” Ironically, he was at least being honest about his dishonesty. Even so, he was impeached, and disbarred, for lying to a grand jury. There is a certain callousness and selfishness that accompanies dishonesty. The transformation of Hannah Montana to Miley Cyrus is a suitable metaphor.

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It is accurate to say this culture turned from casually accepting dishonesty in high places to actually celebrating it, during the Clinton administration, and that shift was assisted by Hillary Clinton in no small measure. She not only worked hard to cover up her husband’s rank immorality; in so doing, she attacked and destroyed women who blew the whistle–and she went further. She engaged in a number of illegal and unethical activities, as revealed in this documentary.

The fact polls show a majority are ready to vote for Hillary in 2016 proves we celebrate and reward corruption and the cheating heart. Her crass and despicable role in the Benghazi affair should be her undoing, but it remains to be seen if the rule of law even applies anymore.

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President Nixon revealed the cold, hard-hearted ruthlessness of full contact politics at a time when there remained a sense of devotion to duty and integrity; and so he paid the price, forced to resign in the face of certain impeachment. Bill and Hillary took that ruthlessness to a whole new level, making it something too many people excused and even admired. Pop culture believes it’s ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ to get away with something.

In our individual lives, as with the life of society, we will receive what we endorse and exalt. And so now, since we endorse and celebrate base behavior driven by rank dishonesty, we reap the downward spiral toward utter chaos, and widespread criminality, as seen in Ferguson and D.C. and the New York state house and elsewhere. As John Adams and the Founders warned, without a public sense of virtue encouraging all to protect the liberty of all, this republic will fail because the only alternative to voluntary cooperation is the bayonet.

Logically speaking then, all those people who celebrate dishonesty and immorality are actually directly responsible for the destruction of liberty and the very successful society formed around the basic building block of individual integrity. When leaders engage in despicable behavior, they sow the very seeds of disaster. And once a society descends to a certain level, when we actually laugh about the evil we promote, it is then perhaps too late. At that point, we are staring at dictatorship, martial law, and the militarization of law enforcement.

This is the Clinton-Obama legacy: gross demoralization driven by moral bankruptcy and the cheating heart. When lies proliferate in the halls of power, and truth-tellers are hounded and jailed, the signs of the times are clear.

Honesty is motivated by love and regard for one’s fellow man. It is the foundation of trust, the framework of civilized society. No love, no honesty, no trust, no society; those links are insoluble if we intend the preservation of civilization. If chaos and anarchy and violence and destruction are the goals, then by all means, stay the course.

Finally, if it is true the Church once acted as the nation’s conscience, and if it is true the national conscience has been beaten unconscious, then isn’t the ultimate responsibility for moral collapse rightly assigned to dereliction of duty in the pews and the pulpit?

The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website.